California Coastal Commission tells Sable Offshore to cease pipeline work, says it needs proper permit
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – Sable Offshore's plans to restart oil production hit a snag after the California Coastal Commission requested the company to stop what it's calling unpermitted development work on two pipelines along the Gaviota Coast.
In a Notice of Violation issued on Sep. 27, 2024, the California Coastal Commission detailed that Sable Offshore's installation of underground safety valve(s) in the coastal zone may be violating sections of the California Public Resources Code and Santa Barbara County Local Coastal Program.
The two pipelines in the notice are referred to as CA-324 and CA-325, formerly lines 901 and 903, respectively. Line 901 ruptured in the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill, which impacted 150 miles of California coast, destroying thousands of acres of shoreline habitats.
According to the notice, obtained through a California Public Records Request by the Center for Biological Diversity and shared with Your News Channel, Sable was asked to stop all ongoing construction and submit an application for a Coastal Development Permit with Santa Barbara County for after-the-fact authorization.
However, a representative of the Center for Biological Diversity shared images with Your News Channel that showed excavators working in the area of pipelines on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, a week after the notice of violation was sent to Sable Offshore.
"This notice of violation was intended to stop work at the at the site. What I witnessed today, it seems that the company is continuing to conduct the work anyway," Brady Bradshaw, Senior Oceans Campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, told Your News Channel on Friday.
The construction could be stabilization efforts at the site to avoid further damage, something the notice from the Coastal Commission detailed as an allowable action. Your News Channel reached out to Sable Offshore as well as the California Coastal Commission about that potential explanation, but did not get a confirmation from either organization.
According to a Sept. 3 SEC filing, Sable Offshore told investors it reached a conditional settlement agreement on Aug. 30, 2024 with Santa Barbara County. The County agreed that installing the 16 new safety valves underground removed those installations from its jurisdiction.
The Coastal Commission stated it was filling the regulatory void left by Santa Barbara County.
"Last week, the California Coastal Commission also disagreed with the county's position and has stepped in to assert jurisdiction over some of the work that Sable is doing," said Jeremy Frankel, Staff Attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund. "They're doing massive excavations up and down the coast to do repairs on this pipeline without any regulatory oversight and in very sensitive habitat."
The Coastal Commission noted that while staff prefer to work cooperatively, the Commission has the legal right to issue a cease and desist order, seek injunctive relief and civil fines through litigation, and issue monetary penalties.
Sections 30821 and 30821.3 of the California Coastal Act allow the Coastal Commission's Executive Director to issue administrative penalties to the company, up to $11,250 per day for each violation.
"Sable Offshore is working with all agencies including the California Coastal Commission to ensure all of our work is in compliance with our existing permits and federal and state statutes," said Steve Rusch, Vice President of Environmental & Regulatory Affairs at Sable Offshore. "As you can imagine with as important a project as SYU, one that will provide a stabilizing supply of low carbon intensity crude oil into the CA market (10-20% of instate production), we are getting a lot of attention. We look forward to being an important part of the California energy solution and working through these issues which come with that increased scrutiny."
Sable Offshore has told investors in SEC filings that it plans to restart production on the Santa Ynez Unit before the end of the year, but construction of safety valves on the pipelines is just one of several hurdles the company has to clear before it can start pumping oil again.
In a letter sent last Friday, state legislators and environmental groups asked the State Fire Marshal to conduct an environmental review before granting a state waiver to the Houston-based company to restart pipelines on the Gaviota Coast, three offshore oil platforms, and a production facility at Los Flores Canyon.
According to the Office of State Fire Marshal, their office is planning on hosting a public meeting about the restarting process.
"It doesn't make sense to rush a restart or to rush processes and to rush work," detailed Brady Bradshaw, Senior Oceans Campaigner. "It's it's a dangerous pipeline. It already spilled. And we really need state agencies to be deeply involved and deeply engaged. And we actually want the public to be able to be engaged as well."
In February of this year, ExxonMobil dropped its lawsuit against Santa Barbara County's denial of the company's plan to truck oil from offshore platforms when it completed the sale of the offshore platforms, the Las Flores Canyon production facility, and affiliated pipelines to Sable Offshore.
